Australia: Foreign airlines free to charge big credit card surcharges

Forieng airlines like AirAsia and Scoot have been accused of exploiting a loophole in new laws meant to prevent travellers being slugged with inflated credit card processing fees. While Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Tigerair have been forced to comply with the ACCC rules, foreign carriers are still slugging passengers $10 per flight per person. Under the changes introduced on September 1, Australian airlines were restricted to surcharges of 1.3% on domestic and international flights, with a cap of $70 on overseas payments. Qantas and Virgin Australia previously charged $7 and $7.70 respectively for payments using credit cards, but now slug passengers around $3 for a $245 flight. Screen shots of bookings made with several overseas carriers, show fees of $20 for return flights to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia, to Singapore with Scoot, and Manila with Cebu Pacific. In the case of the AirAsia flight, the fee should be $7.90, and Scoot $6.50, and Cebu Pacific’s “web admin fee” should be $10 instead of $20. An AirAsia spokesman said the airline was aware of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s standard for credit card fees. “However, all of AirAsia’s credit card transactions are processed by banks based outside of Australia and these transactions are not subject to the RBA’s surcharging standard,” he said. “As a company operating in Australia, AirAsia takes compliance with Australian Consumer Law seriously and when customers visit our website and select a flight, they will see our explanation of applicable processing fees, and the amount is clearly displayed before a purchase is made.”<br/>